[Harvard University]

BOSTON '^5? SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

POUNDED IN 1881 DY HENRY L. HIGGINSON FIFTY-SEVENTH SEASON ttJfM 1937-1938 \H [5]

Thursday Evening, January 13 at 8 o'clock Boston Symphony Orchestra

[Fifty-seventh Season, 1937-1938]

SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor

Personnel

, Violins 8URGIN, R. ELCUS, G. LAUGA, N. SAUVLET, H. RESNIKOFF, .

Concert-master GUNDERSEN, R. KASSMAN, N. CHERKASSKY , P. EISLER, D.

FHEODOROWICZ, J. HANSEN, E. MARIOTTI, \ FEDOROVSKY, P. TAPLEY, R.

LEIBOVICI, J. PINFIELD, C. LEVEEN, P. RRIPS, A.

KNUDSON, C. ZUNG, M. BEALE, M. GORODETZKY, l. MAYER, P. DIAMOND, S. t DEL SORDO, R. FIEDLER, B.

BRYANT, M. STONESTREET, L. MESSINA, S.

MURRAY, J. ERKELENS, H. SEINIGER, S.

LEFRANC, J. FOUREL, G. BERNARD, A. GROVER, H. ARTIERES, L. CAUHAPE*, J. VAN WYNBERGEN, C. WERNER, H.

AVIERINO, N. JACOB, R. GERHARDT, S. HUMPHREY, G. Violoncellos

BEDETTI, J. LANGENDOEN, J. CHARDON, Y. STOCKBRIDGE, C. FABRIZIO, E. DGHERA, A. TORTELIER, P. DROEGHMANS, H. WARNKE, J. MARJOLLET, L. ZIMBLER, J. Basses

KUNZE, M. LEMAIRE, J. LUDWIG, O. GIRARD, H. JUHT, L. VONDRAK, A. MOLEUX, G. FRANKEL, I. DUFRESNE, G.

LAURENT, G. GILLET, F. POLATSCHEK, V. ALLARD, R.

BLADET, G. DEVERGIE, J. VALERIO, m. PANENKA, E.

PAPPOUTSAKIS, I- MAZZEO, R. LAUS, A. Eb Clariaet Piccolo English Horn Contra-

MADSEN, G. SPEYER, L. MIMART, P. PILLER, B. Horns Horns

VALKENIER, W. SINGER, J. mager, g. RAICHMAN, J. MACDONALD, W LANNOYE, M. LAFOSSE, M. HANSOTTE, L.

SINGER, J. SHAPIRO, H VOISIN, R. L. LILLEBACK, W. GEBHARDT, W. KEANEY, P. VOISIN, R. SMITH, V. Harps Percussion

ADAM, E. ZIGHERA, B. SZULC, R. STERNBURG, S. CAME, L. POLSTER, M. WHITE, L. ARCIERI, E. Organ Piano Celesta Librarian

SNOW, A. SANROMA, J. FIEDLER, A. ROGERS, L. J. jS>atttor0 ®fj?atr£ • Harvard University • QIambri&ge

FIFTY-SEVENTH SEASON, 1937-1938

Boston Symphony Orchestra

SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor

RICHARD BURGIN, Assistant Conductor

Concert Bulletin of the

Fifth Concert

THURSDAY EVENING, January 13

with historical and descriptive notes by

John N. Burk

The OFFICERS and TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc.

Bentley W. Warren President Henry B. Sawyer Vice-President Ernest B. Dane Treasurer

Allston Burr M. A. De Wolfe Howe Henry B. Cabot Roger I. Lee Ernest B. Dane Richard C. Paine Alvan T. Fuller Henry B. Sawyer N. Penrose Hallowell Edward A. Taft Bentley W. Warren

G. E. Judd, Manager C. W. Spalding, Assistant Manager

[1] Complete On Two Sides of a Single Victor Record ELEGIE (By GABRIEL FAUBE

HERE is a rare opportunity to obtain a complete work by this orchestra on a single Victor record — a work which has needed modern recording for a long time. The

music is full of softly glowing color, and the celebrated 'cello solo which

runs almost throughout is magnifi- cently played by Mr. Jean Bedetti. This record has been judged a it 3> SERGE koussevitzky gem.

Alice Eversman, Washington^ (D.C.) Star, Nov. 20: — "The character of the '£legie' follows the smooth, flowing style which Faur6 has so often used for nostalgic composition. The melody is carried by the solo 'cello, excellently and beautifully played by Mr. Bedetti, against the softly sustaining background of the orchestra."

Compton Pakenham, record editor of New York Times, Nov. 14: — "The full- dress Boston Orchestra, under Koussevitzky, has made what appears to be the first recording of Gabriel Faur£'s filegie as transcribed for 'cello and orchestra.

. . . Throbbing, meditative and mellow, the filegie is one of those rare compositions

that make an immediate appeal through the richness of a melody. . . . Bedetti's performance of the haunting air is fine and full." Robert C. Bagar, New York World-Telegram, Nov. 20: — "The somber beauty of this work reaches out of its waxen depths in a moving performance." "Elegie" on Victor Record No. 14577 List price $2.00 Recorded by The Roston Symphony Orchestra

BOSTON MUSIC COMPANY 116 BOYLSTON STREET CHARLES W. HOMEYER CO. 498 ROYLSTON STREET M. STEINERT & SONS 162 BOYLSTON STREET

JEAN BEDETTI [2] £>m\iltt& ®f}?atr£ • Harvard University • (ttambri&g?

Boston Symphony Orchestra

FIFTY-SEVENTH SEASON, 1937-1938

SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor

FIFTH CONCERT

THURSDAY EVENING, January 13

DANIELE AMFITHEATROF, Conducting

Programme

Rossini Overture to "Semiramide"

Boccherini Suite for Strings

I. Grave

II. Minuetto

III. Rondo

(First performance at these concerts)

Dukas "L'Apprenti Sorcier," (''The Sorcerer's Apprentice") Scherzo (after a ballad by Goethe)

intermission

Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92

I. Poco sostenuto; Vivace

II. Allegretto

III. Presto; assai meno presto: Tempo primo IV. Allegro con brio

r si DANIELE AMFITHEATROF

Anew visitor to America, Daniele Amfitheatrof, has conducted the first five weeks of the present season of the Minneapolis Sym- phony Orchestra, as associate conductor.

He was born in St. Petersburg, October 29, 1901. His father, Alex- ander Amfitheatrof, was distinguished as a historian. He had sung at the Imperial Theatre before adopting a literary career. The maternal grandfather of Amfitheatrof, Vladimir Sokolof, made his name as a composer of songs, and the mother of Amfitheatrof studied composi- tion with Rimsky-Korsakov. Amfitheatrof began to study music with his mother at the age of six, and later studied with Nicolas Scher- batchef and Joseph Wihtol in St. Petersburg, and Jaroslaw Kficka (a pupil of Hugo Riemann) in Prague. He went to Rome to complete his musical preparation under , and received his diploma for composition from the Royal Conservatory of St. Cecilia. He also studied organ at the Vatican High School. His return to Russia occurred just before the Revolution of 1917, and in 1921 he returned to Italy and became a naturalized citizen of that country, which he has since made his home. From 1924 to 1929 he was pianist, organist and assistant in choral conducting at the Augusteo, acting as assistant conductor to Bernardino Molinari. He later became artistic director of the and Radio, and subsequently conductor and manager of the Italian Broadcasting Company in . He has composed a number of works which have been performed in various parts of Europe. These includes his "Poema del Mare" (1925); "Miracolo della Rose" (a symphonic poem on a legend of St. Francis, 1927); "Preludio ad una Messa da Requiem" (1930). It was in 1934 that he conducted his own "American Panorama" at the Augusteo. His most recent work is his Concerto for Piano and Or- chestra, which was performed last spring in Paris and Turin. Mr. Amfitheatrof has appeared in many European cities as guest con- ductor — Milan, Turin, Trieste, Rome, , Berlin, Brussels, Buda- pest, Belgrade, Vienna, and Paris (Pasdeloup and Lamoureux Or- chestras).

[4] OVERTURE TO THE "SEMIRAMIDE" By Gioacchino Antonio Rossini

Born at Pesaro, Italy, February 29, 1792; died at Passy, France, November 13, 1868

This opera in two acts on a libretto of Gaetano Rossi (based on Voltaire's tragedy of the same name) was first performed at the Fenice Theatre, Venice, February 3,

1823. It was mounted at La Scala, Milan, April 19, 1824; at the King's Theatre,

London, July 15, 1824; at the Theatre Italien, Paris, December 8, 1825. The first performance in Boston Avas at the Federal Street Theatre, March 3, 1851. The Overture is scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings.

There has been one previous performance by this orchestra — February 23, 1923.

When Rossini visited Vienna in the year 1822, the young man had plentiful assurance of the extent of his fame beyond his own country, for he was idolized in the Austrian capital as his opera "Zelmira" was performed. Rossini, who knew and admired Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony and his then recent string quartets, asked his friend Carpani to arrange for a visit to this composer, which Carpani managed, not without difficulty. The dandified appearance of the brilliantly successful Italian composer must have stood out in contrast to that of the unkempt Beethoven in his grubby and disordered lodg- ings. Yet Rossini approached the elder composer with sincere defer- ence. He has left this description of the visit: "The familiar portraits of Beethoven give a good general idea of what he looked like, but no picture could express the indefinable sad- ness apparent in his every feature. Under the thick eyebrows his eyes shone as if from the back of a cavern; they were small but they seemed to pierce. His voice was soft and rather veiled. "When we entered, he at first paid no attention but continued to correct some proofs. Then suddenly, raising his head, he said in fairly good Italian: 'Ah, Rossini, so you're the composer of "The Barber of

Seville." I congratuate you; it is an excellent opera buffa which I have read with great pleasure. It will be played as long as Italian Opera exists. Never try to write anything else but opera buffa; any attempt to succeed in another style would be to do violence to your nature.' " 'But,' interrupted Carpani, 'Rossini has already composed a large number of opere serie — "Tancredi" "/' "Mose." I sent you the scores a little while back to look at.' " 'Yes, and I looked at them,' answered Beethoven, 'but, believe me, opera seria is ill suited to the Italians. You do not possess sufficient musical knowledge to deal with real drama, and how, in Italy, should you acquire it? Nobody can touch you Italians in opera buffa, a style ideally fitted to your language and temperament. Look at Cimarosa;

T5] how much better is the comic part of his than all the rest! And the same is true of Pergolesi. You Italians have a high opinion of his religious music, and I grant that there is much feeling in the "Stabat"; but as regards form, it is deficient in variety, and the effect is monoton- !' ous. Now "La Serva Padrona" . . . "I then expressed my profound admiration for his genius and my great gratitude for having been allowed to voice it in person. He " answered with a deep sigh: 'O , un infeliceV

Rossini may well have sensed the fundamental soundness of these remarks, even though he could have argued a financial and popular success with opera seria beyond the other composer's most hopeful dreams. Beethoven, who legitimately missed any deep and powerful current in Rossini's attempts at putting tragedy to music, nevertheless must have inwardly envied Rossini's knack of turning tricks of the theatre, writing a tune, or managing an ensemble which would send the operatic public into transports and subdue the entrepreneurs of Europe into fabulous offers of gold.

A strange pair, these two made. The non-theatrical Beethoven, who spent years upon one opera, made it irresistibly moving by the sheer intensity of his belief in the theme of loyalty and sacrifice, conquered an intractable medium by the very momentum of his zeal; the Italian whose fortune lay in his facility, who cheerfully accepted almost any preposterous libretto, well knowing that he could cover any tragic episode with a rousing chorus or a brilliant air. Beethoven entirely lacked that instant sparkle of melody, that easy and graceful response to the matter in hand, whatever it might be, which sometimes put Rossini very close indeed to Mozart (whom no one in Europe held in greater reverence than Rossini himself). The difference between

Beethoven and Rossini is well instanced by Francis Toye in his read- able "Rossini: A Study in Tragi-Comedy": while Beethoven found it necessary to write four overtures for one opera, Rossini found it possible to fit one overture to three operas. Yet Rossini was astute enough, was musician enough, to sense the rareness and profundity of Beethoven's genius, and to be incensed at the comparative neglect of it, so far as Vienna at large was concerned. He spoke of Beethoven at a dinner at Prince Metternich's and tried to start a subscription towards a permanent income for him. People only shook their heads, assuring Rossini, truthfully enough, that, "even if Beethoven were provided with a house, he would very soon sell it, for it was his habit to change his abode every six months and his servant every six weeks."

Less than a year after the encounter of the two, Rossini went to

Venice where his "Maometto" was mounted, and where it failed mis- erably. There were remarks in the press to the effect that Rossini could [6] hardly retrieve himself from such a setback with a new opera in the little time that remained of the season. The composer, now on his mettle, and remembering perhaps Beethoven's piquing remarks about opera seria, forthwith sat down and wrote a long tragedy in music in the grand style in seven days less than the forty his contract allowed. "Semiram- ide" stepped forthwith into public favor. The Venetian public, as- sembled for their carnival, took "Semiramide" to their bosoms after a short preliminary hesitation, and applauded through twenty-eight consecutive nights its overture, its more taking airs, its best concerted numbers, and its innovation of a brass band upon the stage.

The plot of "Semiramide," long a favorite subject for opera, fol- lows the lines of Greek tragedy. There is a dispute over the succession to the throne of Babylon. Semiramis, the widowed Queen, names Arsace, a young general in the army, to become the new monarch and her consort. The shade of Nino, the dead king, appears and accuses her of his murder by poison. Arsace is later revealed to be her own son, whom all had believed to have been killed in battle. Arsace descends into the tomb of Nino, and thinking to kill his rival in the darkness, kills his own mother with his father's sword. The crime of

Semiramis is expiated. The Overture departs from the custom of Rossini in introducing subjects from the opera itself. The andantino which follows the short introductory allegro is taken from the quintet in the first act where the queen demands and receives the homage of her subjects. A theme from the final brilliant allegro of the overture is found in a chorus of the second act (No. 13) in which Arsace is told that he must slay both his enemy, Assur, and Semiramis herself. Philip Hale has pointed out that there are at least thirty operas in which Semiramis figures as heroine. "Many legends concerning her have come down to us, some of them strange and even monstrous. In 1910 Professor Lehmann-Haupt of the Berlin University rehabilitated her. It seems that she lived about 800 B.C.; that her real name was Sammurpamat; that Ninus was her son, not her husband; that she was probably a Babylonian; that, a woman, whose influence outlasted her reign, she waged wars against the Indo-Germanic Medes and against the Chaldeans. The Semiramis Canal which irrigates a great part of the Plain of Van dates from about the time of the Queen, and

the city of Van is called by the Armenians, Semiramis." [copyrighted]

[7] SUITE FOR STRINGS

By Luigi Boccherini

Born at Lucca, Italy, February 19, 1743; died at Madrid, May 28, 1805

The movements of the present suite are selected from the string quintets of Boccherini. The parts were originally written for the single voices of two violins, and two 'cellos. The editor has doubled the second 'cello part by the ad- dition of doublebasses. The movements consist of a Grave in C minor, a Minuet in G major, with a trio in G minor, and a final Rondo in C major. The Suite was performed at the concerts of the Minneapolis Symphony Orches- tra, November 19, 1937.

Boccherini, by the sometimes strange courses of posterity, is prob- ably known to most people in this century by a single minuet.* That little piece happens to be no more than a movement in one of one hundred and twenty-five string quintets. The minuet in this suite thus becomes a sample of the innumerable forgotten ones. In addition to the quintets for strings, there are also about two dozen with wind instruments or piano, nearly one hundred string quartets and half as many trios, numerous works in other chamber combinations, oratorios, a Stabat Mater, and other religious music — almost five hundred works in all. Whatever Boccherini's abilities as a 'cellist may have been, the

quantity of his chamber music is proof in itself of an insistent demand

for it in his own day, and there is corroborating evidence in the con- stant avidity of his publishers in a time when the publication of music was none too common. If Boccherini was not a sole and lonely pioneer of music in small chamber combinations, he has been praised by his contemporaries and no less by musicians of succeeding generations for the important impulse he gave to the form in his time. Boccherini was eleven years younger than Joseph Haydn, and died four years before that master;

it may be deduced from their mutual esteem that the string quar- tets or quintets of each had their effect upon the other. The two may never have met, for Boccherini spent most of his life in Spain; but letters from each, addressed to the publisher Artaria, convey messages to the other of admiration and respect. Giuseppe Puppo, fellow townsman of Boccherini, eminent violinist, and coiner of bons

mots, contrasted their styles in the phrase: "Boccherini is the wife of

* The following works of Boccherini have been performed at the concerts of this Orchestra: Symphony in C major, Op. 16, No. 3, November 21—22, 1924; Concerto for Violoncello in B-flat, December 28-29, 1923 (soloist, Pablo Casals), and December 27-28, 1937 (soloist, Raya Garbousova — Monday and Tuesday series).

I 81 —

Haydn."* Boccherini did much towards implanting a love for true chamber music in the Mediterranean countries — Italy, France and Spain, where he lived, played and composed, and where indeed in- strumental combinations had long been conceived as centering upon the virtuosity of the violin. "The fancy, the sweet and deep poesy, the power and the variety" of his music is stressed by George de Saint-Foix, the modern scholar of the eighteenth-century style, in his preface to the biography by Picquot.f Picquot himself, whose life of Boccherini first appeared in 1851, wrote: "With an inborn gift for smooth and pure melodic thoughts, Boccherini had a natural instinct for exquisite melody and a skill in setting it in soft, expressive, and suave harmony." And Charles Burney, of the composer's day, had this to say in his "History of Music" of 1789: "He has perhaps supplied the performers on bowed-instruments and lovers of Music with more excellent com- positions than any master of the present age, except Haydn. His style is at once bold, masterly, and elegant. There are movements in his works, of every style, and in the true genius of the instruments for which he writes, that place him high in rank among the greatest masters who have ever written for the violin or violoncello. There is perhaps no instrumental Music more ingenious, elegant, and pleas- ing, than his quintets: in which, invention, grace, modulation, and good taste, conspire to render them, when well executed, a treat for the most refined hearers and critical judges of musical composition."

*"As, a century later, Massenet was called by some, 'Mile. Wagner': which, was a little rough on Wagner." Lawrence Gilman.

^"Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de Luigi Boccherini," by L. Picquot. [copyrighted]

4>£Xiy^

[9] "THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE" (after a Ballad by Goethe) By Paul Abraham Dukas

Born at Paris, October 1, 1865; died there May 17, 1935

"L'Apprenti Sorcier," a scherzo, was composed in 1897 and ^rst performed at a concert of the Societe Nationale under the direction of Dukas, on May 18 of the same year. There was a performance in Chicago by the Chicago Orchestra, under

Theodore Thomas, January 14, 1899. The first performance at the Boston Sym- phony concerts was on October 22, 1904. There were numerous subsequent per- formances, the last in the Friday and Saturday series having been on October

23' !925- The piece is scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets and , three bassoons and contra-bassoon, four horns, two trumpets, two cornets-a-pistons, three trombones, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, glocken- spiel, harp and strings.

Dukas died within one day of thirty-eight years since the first per- formance of his orchestral scherzo, which then- duly w#nt*the rounds of European orchestras and planted his name in the general conscious- ness. Gustave Samazeuilh has recalled how the composer played him the sketch of his piece in March of 1897. Both musicians were in Brussels for the first performance of d'Indy's "Fervaal." Dukas played his new work on a bad hotel piano, but succeeded in greatly impress- ing his companion by "its life force, its certainty, its perfect depiction of its subject, which in no way obscured the clarity of the musical structure." Dukas, as was always the case, Samazeuilh adds, "had long pondered his subject, allowed it to develop at leisure before coming to the point of its realization, which was always quick with him, once the moment of decision came." Certain of his friends have hazarded that this work may have been material once intended for the Symphony in C major which it shortly followed, and which has no scherzo. The ballad of Goethe, "Der Zauberlehrling," furnished the subject. The poem was in its turn derived from a traditional tale found in Lucian's "The Lie-fancier." The philosopher Eucrates there tells how he once met on the River Nile the sage Pancrates, who had lived for many years in a cave and there learned the magic of Isis. The tale has thus been translated by William Tooke from "Lucian of Samatosa."

"When I saw him as often as we went on shore, among other sur- prising feats, ride upon crocodiles, and swim about among these and other aquatic animals, and perceived what respect they had for him by wagging their tails, I concluded that the man must be somewhat extraordinary." Eucrates accompanied his new acquaintance as his disciple. "When we came to an inn, Pancrates would take the wooden bar of the door, or a broom, or the pestle of a wooden mortar, put clothes upon it and speak a couple of magical words to it. Immedi-

[10I ately the broom, or whatever else it was, was taken by all people for a man like themselves; he went out, drew water, ordered our victuals, and waited upon us in every respect as handily as the completest domestic. When his attendance was no longer necessary, my com- panion spoke a couple of other words, and the broom was again a broom, the pestle again a pestle, as before. This art, with all I could do, I was never able to learn from him; it was the only secret he would not impart to me; though in other respects he was the most obliging man in the world. "At last, however, I found an opportunity to hide me in an obscure corner, and overheard his charm, which I snapped up immediately, as it consisted of only three syllables. After giving his necessary orders to the pestle without observing me, he went out to the market. The following day when he was gone out about business I took the pestle, clothed it, pronounced the three syllables, and bid it fetch me some water. He directly brought me a large pitcher full. 'Good,' said I, 'I want no more water; be again a pestle.' He did not, however, mind what I said; but went on fetching water and continued bringing it, till at length the room was overflowed. Not knowing what to do, for I was afraid lest Pancrates at his return should be angry, as indeed was the case, and having no alternative, I took an ax and split the pestle in two. But this made bad worse; for now each of the halves snatched up a pitcher and fetched water; so that for one water-carrier I now had two. Meantime, in came Pancrates; and understanding what had happened, turned them into their pristine form; he, how- ever, privily took himself away, and I have never set eyes on him since." [copyrighted]

SYMPHONY NO. 7 in A major, Op. 92 By Ludwig van Beethoven

Born at Bonn, December 16 (?), 1770; died at Vienna, March 26, 1827

The Seventh Symphony, finished in the summer of 1812, was first performed on

December 8, 1813, in the hall of the University of Vienna, Beethoven conducting.

It is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two

trumpets, timpani and strings. The dedication is to Moritz Count Imperial von Fries.

The most recent performance in this series was on October 25, 1935.

Beethoven was long in the habit of wintering in Vienna proper, and summering in one or another outlying district, where woods and meadows were close at hand. Here the creation of music would

closely occupy him, and the Seventh Symphony is no exception. When he completed it in the summer of 1812,* four years had elapsed since the Pastoral Symphony, but they were not unproductive years. And the Eighth followed close upon the Seventh, having been completed

* The manuscript score was dated by the composer "1812; 13ten "; then folloAvs the

vertical stroke of the name of the month, the rest of which a careless binder trimmed off- leaving posterity perpetually in doubt whether it was May, June, or July.

[11.1 Events at Symphony Hall

Daniele Amfitheatrof will appear as guest conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for a second week, conducting the con- certs for Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon next in Symphony Hall, and likewise on Friday afternoon, January 21, and Saturday evening, January 22. His programme for the latter pair of concerts will include Beethoven's Overture to "Leonore" No. 3, Pizetti's "Con- certo del Estate/' and Scriabin's "Divine Poem."

A programme dedicated to the memory of , the late French composer, will be presented by Serge Koussevitzky at the Boston Symphony concerts of Friday afternoon and Saturday evening, January 28 and 29.

Yehudi Menuhin and his sister Hephzibah Menuhin, will give a re- cital on next Sunday afternoon, January 16, at 3.30. This will be the first appearance of Hephzibah in Boston and one of the very limited number of public appearances which she is to make this season. They will present three sonatas for violin and piano.

The Cleveland Orchestra, Artur Rodzinski conductor, will visit Boston to give a concert on Thursday evening, February 10. Rose Pauly, the dramatic soprano of the Metropolitan Opera Company, will appear at this concert in excerpts from Richard Strauss' Opera "Salome." The programme will also contain the same composer's "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks," and the Second Symphony of Shostakovitch.

Burton Holmes will open a series of five travelogues on Saturday afternoon, January 15.

[ia in October, 1812. Beethoven at that time had not yet undertaken the devastating cares of a guardianship, or the lawsuits which were soon to harass him. His deafness, although he still attempted to conduct, allowed him to hear only the louder tones of an orchestra. He was not without friends. His fame was fast growing, and his income was not inconsiderable, although it showed for little in the haphazard domestic arrangements of a restless bachelor. The sketches for the Seventh Symphony are in large part indeter- minate as to date, although the theme of the Allegretto is clearly indi- cated in a sketchbook of 1809. Grove* is inclined to attribute the real inception of the work to the early autumn of 1811, when Beethoven, staying at Teplitz, near Prague, "seems to have enjoyed himself thoroughly — in the midst of an intellectual and musical society — free and playful, though innocent." "Varnhagen von Ense and the famous Rahel, afterwards his wife, were there; the Countess von de Recke from Berlin; and the Sebalds, a musical family from the same city, with one of whom, Amalie, the susceptible Beethoven at once fell violently in love, as Weber had done before him; Varena, Ludwig Lowe the actor, Fichte the philosopher, Tiedge the poet, and other poets and artists were there too; these

* Sir George Grove: "Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies" (1896).

Cantors GUjeato • (Cambrtfcgr

Boston Syinphony Orchestra

SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor

SIXTH CONCERT

Thursday Evening, February 17

at 8 o'clock

C 13 3 formed a congenial circle with whom his afternoons and evenings were passed in the greatest good-fellowship and happiness." There was more than one affair of the heart within the circle, and if the affairs came to no conclusion, at least they were not unconducive to musical romancing. "Here, no doubt," Grove conjectures, "the early ideas of the Seventh Symphony were put into score and gradually elaborated into the perfect state in which we now possess them. Many pleasant traits are recorded by Varnhagen in his letters to his fiancee and others. The coy but obstinate resistance which Beethoven usually offered to extemporising he here laid entirely aside, and his friends probably heard, on these occasions, many a portion of the new Sym- phony which was seething in his heart and brain, even though no word was dropped by the mighty player to enlighten them."

It would require more than a technical yardstick to measure the true proportions of this symphony — the sense of immensity which it con- veys. Beethoven seems to have built up this impression by wilfully driving a single rhythmic figure through each movement, until the music attains (particularly in the body of the first movement, and in the Finale) a swift propulsion, an effect of cumulative growth which is akin to extraordinary size. The three preceding symphonies have none of this quality — the slow movement of the Fourth, many parts of the "Pastoral" are static by comparison. Even the Fifth Symphony dwells in violent dramatic contrasts which are the antithesis of sus- tained, expansive motion. Schubert's great Symphony in C major, very different of course from Beethoven's Seventh, makes a similar effect of grandeur by similar means in its Finale.

The long introduction (Beethoven had not used one since his Fourth Symphony) leads, by many repetitions on the dominant, into the main body of the movement, where the characteristic rhythm, once released, holds its swift course, almost without cessation, until the end of the movement. Where a more modern composer seeks rhythmic interest by rhythmic variety and complexity, Beethoven keeps strictly to his repetitious pattern, and with no more than the spare orchestra of Mozart to work upon finds variety through his in- exhaustible invention. It is as if the rhythmic germ has taken hold of his imagination and, starting from the merest fragment, expands and looms, leaping through every part of the orchestra, touching a new magic of beauty at every unexpected turn. Wagner called the sym- phony "the Dance in its highest condition; the happiest realization of the movements of the body in an ideal form." If any other composer could impel an inexorable rhythm, many times repeated, into a vast music — it was Wagner. [Ml SYMPHONY HALL

Thursday Evening, February 10

Th e CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA ARTUR RODZINSKI, Conductor

Soloist: ROSE PAULY, Soprano

(The programme will include excerpts

from Richard Strauss's "Salome")

Tickets at the Box Office

[15] '^^^^^^•^1

In the Allegretto Beethoven withholds his headlong, capricious mood. But the sense of motion continues in this, the most agile of his sym- phonic slow movements (excepting the entirely different Allegretto of the Eighth). It is in A minor, and subdued by comparison, but pivots no less upon its rhythmic motto, and when the music changes to A major, the clarinets and bassoons setting their melody against triplets in the violins, the basses maintain the incessant rhythm. Beethoven was inclined, in his last years, to disapprove the lively tempo often used, and spoke of changing the indication to Andante quasi allegretto.

The third movement is marked simply "presto," although it is a

scherzo in effect. The whimsical Beethoven of the first movement is still in evidence, with sudden outbursts, and alternations of fortissimo and piano. The trio, which occurs twice in the course of the move- ment, is entirely different in character from the light and graceful presto, although it grows directly from a simple alternation of two notes half a tone apart in the main body of the movement. Thayer re- ports the refrain, on the authority of the Abbe Stadler, to have de- rived from a pilgrims' hymn familiar in Lower Austria. The Finale has been called typical of the "unbuttoned" (aufge- knopft) Beethoven. Grove finds in it, for the first time in his music, "a vein of rough, hard, personal boisterousness, the same feeling which inspired the strange jests, puns and nicknames which abound in his letters." Schumann calls it "hitting all around" ("schlagen um sich").

"The force that reigns throughout this movement is literally prodi- gious, and reminds one of Carlyle's hero Ram Dass, who had 'fire enough in his belly to burn up the entire world.' " Years ago the resemblance was noted between the first subject of the Finale and Beethoven's accompaniment to the Irish air "Nora Creina," which he was working upon at this time for George Thomson of Edinburgh.*

* In an interesting article, "Celtic Elements in Beethoven's Seventh Symphony" {Musical Quarterly, July, 1935), James Travis goes so far as to claim: "It is demonstrable that the themes, not of one, but of all four movements of the Seventh Symphony owe rhythmic and melodic and even occasional harmonic elements to Beethoven's Celtic studies." However plausibly Mr. Travis builds his case, basing his proofs upon careful notation, it is well to remember that others these many years have dived deep into this symphony in pursuit of special connotations, always with doubtful results. D'Indy, who called it a "pastoral" symphony, and Berlioz, who found the scherzo a "ronde des paysans," are among them. The industrious seekers extend back to Dr. Carl Iken, who described in the work a revolution, fully hatched, and brought from the composer a sharp and merited rebuke. Beethoven was always seizing upon some chance fragment that came his way, en- larging upon it, making it entirely his own. Never did he evolve a more purely musical scheme. [copyrighted] (^D&l?

r >6] MUSICAL INSTRUCTION LONGY SCHOOL OF MUSIC CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. Tro. 0956 PIANO TEACHERS OF THE FACULTY Frederic Tillotson Margaret Mason Elmer Schoettlb Mary Church David Bacon Doris Morrison Margaret Macdonald Minna Franziska Holl, Director; Walter Piston, Chairman^ Advisory Board. MATHILDE THOMSEN WARD TEACHER OF SPEECH AND SINGING Lecture Recitals: "AN HOUR WITH GRIEG" (Songs and talk with personal reminiscences) For Colleges, Schools, Clubs and Drawing-rooms 5 CRAIGIE CIRCLE, CAMBRIDGE Trowbridge 6845

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BOUND VOLUMES of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Bulletins Containing

analytical and descriptive notes by Mr. John N. Burk, on all works performed during the season

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